We were recently invited to visit the newly refurbished Beefeater restaurant in Wenvoe, Cardiff; the Walston Castle. This is a restaurant that I have been to many times over the years, both as a child with my parents (a big treat!) and since having met my husband (who I remember hustling at a game of pool), so I was eager to discover the new decoration style.
When we arrived I commented on the refurbishment and the manager explained that the Walston Castle had been granted orange status and that they were very proud of it. He explained about the improvements to the menu and the facilities, and then offered to bring us flatbread straight away while we chose our meals. There was a choice of a garlic, chilli or ham and cheese flatbread, and so we opted for the garlic one. It was nice to have something to take the edge off our hunger while choosing, although in hindsight we probably shouldn't have then gone on to order nachos as we struggled to finish our mains!
The menu is extensive and there's an excellent selection of starters from sharing platters to soup, potato dippers, mini ribs, pate or prawn cocktail amongst others. The main meals consist of a wide range of different types of steaks (obviously! It's not called Beefeater for nothing!), chicken, ribs, fish and chips, gammon, chillis, salads and risotto. There were two vegetarian options; a Quorn 'Veg Out Burger', and a Vegetable and Tomato Linguine (this usually comes with chicken but it can be omitted). I'll confess that I'd hoped for another option as well, but was more than happy to chose the burger (a towering QUorn burger with Monterey Jack cheese, chargrilled red pepper, ranch dressing and smoky tomato sauce, served with fries and coleslaw) while my husband chose the '74 Signature steak (lean and tender 8oz tri-tip steak served with chips and salad). It is worth noting that I had fries with my burger while he had steak-cut chips, perfect matches for the types of meals.
The burger was delicious and very filling indeed. I tend to shy away from Quorn burgers at home as I find them bland, but this had been paired with a strong cheese and delicious relishes which really added to the whole flavour. The coleslaw was homemade style and delivious. My husband chose to have his steak cooked medium and he said it was moist and delicious.
The dessert menu has an excellent range of both sundaes and traditional puddings, and we were both tempted by our favourites of Blackforest Gateau and Caramel Apple Betty. My gateau was light and the cherries were gorgeous, the apple tart was sweet and tasty. Unfortunately, we were both so full by this time that neither of us could finish it; something unheard of before!
I was very impressed indeed with the children's menu; there was a choise of one, two or three courses and even the three course option was only £5.99 with a squash drink included. The starters for the children included garlic bread, nachos and vegetable sticks, while the mains ranged from burgers, sausage and mash, pasta, chicken dippers, fish bites, spaghetti bolognese, etc. There is also the option to swap the provided vegetables for a range of others, and the allotted carbohydrates for rice, chips, potatoes or mash. The Boy opted for veg sticks, followed by sausage and mash (three sausages which he normally struggles with but wolfed down!), and for pudding a brownie and ice-cream mountain.
We were really impressed with the meals that we had, the quality was really good and the service was speedy and very polite. The bill came to £55.00 for the three of us which is around average for a restaurant like this. It is worth noting that was for a child's three course meal, two adult starters, mains and puddings plus refillable drinks. We will definitely revisit here as it clean and tidy, the menu was extensive and it was good value for money.
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We were provided with £50.00 vouchers for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.
The food all looks lovely!